We do it right

She’s fretting about that lone zit on the nose, because she has a jig at a club tomorrow night. What should she do? ABC cream comes to the rescue. Just apply it and her skin is all fresh and clean, set for the big night.

This is probably just one sort of depiction of a young woman on television. There are thousands more. From the mother who becomes the best mom in the whole world because she uses a particular brand of cooking oil, to a woman who is dumped by a man because she wasn’t fair enough, women are portrayed in this whole gamut of roles. It was always the woman who is multi-tasking. Nothing wrong with that. Multi-tasking is a good thing. But she also ends up being worried about how she looks and how people might perceive her just because she isn’t fair-skinned. It’s always about the looks. Unfortunately. For you to feel that ‘you are worth it’ or to feel ‘like one in a million’, you should use XYZ beauty product.

And it is not just in ads where woman play the central role. What about the ads for vests and briefs? Yeh aaraam ka mamla hai? How low can an ad stoop? You wear this brand of baniyans and you immediately get a woman? Shouldn’t there be a limit to so called ‘creative liberties’?

Even young girls are being sucked into this now. An ad for a soap shows a mother telling her little daughter to go buy a bar of soap. The daughter leaves immediately, when the mother realises that she forgot to tell the little girl which brand of soap to buy. She runs after her, worried to her stomach that her daughter’s confidence will be shattered if she ends up using the wrong brand of soap. She finally gets back home only to find her daughter having a bath with, yeah you guessed it, the right brand of soap. How in the world are you affected by the brand of soap that you use? And that too a little girl? It is outrageously ridiculous.

From wooing women with the latest pressure cookers to using them as mere puppets in men’s deodorants ads, women are used for their outside appearances, all beauty and no brain. It is abominable that women have to stand before you in white tops with their arms raised, showing off their smooth and sweet-smelling underarms.

But it is not just in the world of advertisements. The media itself has a way with dealing with women. When Meira Kumar becomes Speaker at the Lok Sabha, everyone goes ga-ga about it. Why? Because she is doing a so-called man’s job? Agreed that she is the first woman Speaker in the LS. So what allows us to question, analyse and dig into it? She can do the job as well or better than any man who has done it all these years. The same was said when Prathiba Patil became President.

Every college-going, jobless, timepass-indulging young individual would have for sure watched the reality television show ‘Splitsvilla’. I watch it too. I fall in the ‘timepass’ category. I am at a loss of words at the mention of this show. It does not just degrade women but also men. Each one making an absolute fool of herself/himself all for some prize money and the chance to host your own show later. For starters, the entire show’s audio should be reworked to just having beeps throughout. The young women in the show are just out to spoil their own lives with all the drama they are creating themselves. I’m not against wearing minimal clothing. I’m not against reality television. But it’s quite another thing to make a complete joker out of yourself. As a woman, there should be a certain level of decency and sense that you should carry. And shows like this only try to demean women, giving them the opportunity to do so themselves.

There is an obsession to women who are glamorous and wear good clothes. But zero attention is paid to those who have contributed in more productive terms. How many of us know Rakhi Sawant? Your answer is as good as mine. How many of us know Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar? It is ok if you are drawing a blank now. The duo co-founded The Banyan, a trust that works with homeless and metally ill women. But how much do you get to read about their work as much as you read about Rakhi Sawant and her swayamvar?

Like in the US, in India, it may take an Oprah Winfrey to bring about a change. Oprah hasn’t really caused any sort of revolution. But she has changed certain mindsets. You don’t always see her talking about fashion and Hollywood. There’s obviously much more that she does.

Why is it that women are always portrayed as weak, emotional, lenient, soft, compassionate and so on? Why can’t a spade be called a spade? Is it always about appearing beautiful to the other gender? Is it always about saying the right things, worrying about the family, cooking your husband’s favourite dish, mending your daughter’s torn jeans and other such ‘home’ work?

Women should be portrayed for who they are. Not as mere models for an ad campaign. Women are beautiful, no doubt. But that isn’t it. Today’s women don’t fall for Amul’s baniyan or faint at the scent of Axe. Today’s women don’t harp about Prestige cooker or Sundrop cooking oil.

An ad for a liquid washing soap shows the wife telling the husband to wash vessels and then get on with his escapades. That’s the woman of today. Assertive and firm. But still gentle and beautiful.

“Man loves little and often; women much and rarely” reads the status message of an acquaintance. That’s the difference. When we do something, we do it right.